Colorado River
Colorado River | |
---|---|
San Luis Río Colorado, Son. | |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | La Poudre Pass |
• location | Rocky Mountains, Colorado, United States |
• coordinates | 40°28′20″N 105°49′34″W / 40.47222°N 105.82611°W[1] |
• elevation | 10,184 ft (3,104 m) |
Mouth | Gulf of California |
• location | Colorado River Delta, Baja California–Sonora, Mexico |
• coordinates | 31°48′54″N 114°48′00″W / 31.81500°N 114.80000°W |
• elevation | 0 ft (0 m) |
Length | 1,450 mi (2,330 km)[2] |
Basin size | 246,000 sq mi (640,000 km2)[2] |
Discharge | |
• location | mouth (average unimpaired flow), max and min at Topock, AZ, 300 mi (480 km) from the mouth[3] |
• average | 22,500 cu ft/s (640 m3/s)[3] |
• minimum | 422 cu ft/s (11.9 m3/s)[4] |
• maximum | 384,000 cu ft/s (10,900 m3/s)[5] |
Basin features | |
Tributaries | |
• left | Kanab River, Virgin River, Hardy River |
The Colorado River (Spanish: Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The 1,450-mile-long (2,330 km) river, the 5th longest in the United States, drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states. The name Colorado derives from the Spanish language for "colored reddish" due to its heavy silt load. Starting in the central Rocky Mountains of Colorado, it flows generally southwest across the Colorado Plateau and through the Grand Canyon before reaching Lake Mead on the Arizona–Nevada border, where it turns south toward the international border. After entering Mexico, the Colorado approaches the mostly dry Colorado River Delta at the tip of the Gulf of California between Baja California and Sonora.
Known for its dramatic canyons, whitewater rapids, and eleven
Native Americans have inhabited the Colorado River basin for at least 8,000 years. Starting around 1 CE, large agriculture-based societies were established, but a combination of drought and poor land use practices led to their collapse in the 1300s. Their descendants include tribes such as the Puebloans, while others including the Navajo settled in the Colorado Basin after the 1000s. In the 1500s, Spanish explorers began mapping and claiming the watershed, which became part of Mexico upon winning its independence from Spain in 1821. Even after most of the watershed became US territory in 1846, much of the river's course remained unknown. Several expeditions charted the Colorado in the mid-19th century—one of which, led by John Wesley Powell, was the first to run the rapids of the Grand Canyon. Large-scale settlement of the lower basin began in the mid- to late-1800s, with steamboats sailing from the Gulf of California to landings along the river that linked to wagon roads to the interior. Starting in the 1860s, gold and silver strikes drew prospectors to the upper Colorado River basin.
Large-scale river management began in the early 1900s, with major guidelines established in a series of international and US interstate treaties known as the "Law of the River". The US federal government constructed most of the major dams and aqueducts between 1910 and 1970; the largest, Hoover Dam, was completed in 1935. Numerous water projects have also involved state and local governments. With all of their waters fully allocated, both the Colorado and the neighboring Rio Grande are now considered among the most controlled and litigated river systems in the world. Since 2000, extended drought has conflicted with increasing demands for Colorado River water, and the level of human development and control of the river continues to generate controversy.
Course
The Colorado begins at
From Grand Junction, the Colorado turns northwest before cutting southwest across the eponymous Colorado Plateau, a vast area of high desert centered at the Four Corners of the southwestern United States. Here, the climate becomes significantly drier than that in the Rocky Mountains, and the river becomes entrenched in progressively deeper gorges of bare rock, beginning with Ruby Canyon and then Westwater Canyon as it enters Utah, now once again heading southwest.[17] Farther downstream it receives the Dolores River and defines the southern border of Arches National Park, before passing Moab and flowing through "The Portal", where it exits the Moab Valley between a pair of 1,000-foot (300 m) sandstone cliffs.[18]
In Utah, the Colorado flows primarily through the "
In Arizona, the river passes
At the lower end of Grand Canyon, the Colorado widens into
After leaving the confines of the
The LCRV is one of the most densely populated areas along the river, and there are numerous towns including Bullhead City, Arizona, Needles, California, and Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Here, several large diversions draw from the river, providing water for both local uses and distant regions including the Salt River Valley of Arizona and metropolitan Southern California.[34] The last major U.S. diversion is at Imperial Dam, where over 90 percent of the river's flow is moved into the Gila Gravity Canal and Yuma Area Project, and the much bigger All-American Canal to irrigate California's Imperial Valley, the most productive winter agricultural region in the United States.[35]
Before 20th-century development dewatered the lower Colorado, a major
Major tributaries
The Colorado is joined by over 25 significant tributaries, of which the Green River is the largest by both length and discharge. The Green River takes drainage from the Wind River Range of west-central Wyoming, from Utah's Uinta Mountains, and from the Rockies of northwestern Colorado.[41] The Gila River is the second longest and drains a greater area than the Green,[42] but has a significantly lower flow because of a more arid climate and larger diversions for irrigation and cities.[43] Both the Gunnison and San Juan rivers, which derive most of their water from Rocky Mountains snowmelt, contribute more water than the Gila contributed naturally.[44]
Statistics of the Colorado's longest tributaries | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | State | Length | Watershed | Discharge | References | |||
mi | km
|
mi2 | km2
|
cfs
|
m3/s
|
|||
Green River
|
Utah | 730 | 1,170 | 48,100 | 125,000 | 6,048 | 171.3 | [42][45][46][n 1] |
Gila River | Arizona | 649 | 1,044 | 58,200 | 151,000 | 247 | 7.0 | [2][42][47][n 2] |
San Juan River
|
Utah | 383 | 616 | 24,600 | 64,000 | 2,192 | 62.1 | [42][48][49][n 3] |
Little Colorado River | Arizona | 356 | 573 | 26,500 | 69,000 | 424 | 12.0 | [42][50][51] |
Dolores River | Utah | 250 | 400 | 4,574 | 11,850 | 633 | 17.9 | [42][52][53] |
Gunnison River | Colorado | 164 | 264 | 7,930 | 20,500 | 2,570 | 73 | [42][48][54] |
Virgin River | Nevada | 160 | 260 | 13,020 | 33,700 | 239 | 6.8 | [42][55][56][n 4] |
Discharge
In its natural state, the Colorado River poured about 16.3 million
About 85–90 percent of the Colorado River's discharge originates in melting snowpack from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Wyoming.[61] The three major upper tributaries of the Colorado – the snow-fed Gunnison, Green, and San Juan – alone deliver almost 9 million acre-feet (11 km3) per year to the main stem.[63] The remaining 10 to 15 percent comes from a variety of sources, primarily groundwater and summer monsoon storms.[61] Tributaries in the Lower Basin are prone to monsoon–caused flash floods, but these storms do not often contribute significant volumes of runoff.[61][64] Annual runoff follows snowmelt, which typically begins in April, peaking in May and June before exhausting in July or August.[65]
Due to water diversions, flows at the mouth of the river have steadily declined since the early 1900s. Since 1960, the Colorado has typically dried up before reaching the sea, with the exception of a few wet years.[66] In addition to water consumption, flows have declined due to evaporation from reservoirs and warming temperatures that reduce winter snow accumulation.[67][68][69] Several of the Colorado's major tributaries, including the Gila River, also no longer reach the Colorado due to upstream diversions.[70]
The average flow rate of the Colorado River at the northernmost point of the Mexico–United States border (NIB, or Northerly International Boundary) is 3,869 cubic feet per second (109.6 m3/s), or 2.80 million acre-feet (3.45 km3) per year – about one-fifth of what the natural flow would be.[71] Below this location, the remaining flow is diverted to irrigate the Mexicali Valley, leaving a dry riverbed from Morelos Dam to the sea that is supplemented by intermittent flows of irrigation drainage water.[72] There have been exceptions, however, particularly in 1983–1987, when the Colorado once again reached the sea after consecutive seasons of record-breaking snowfall.[73] In 1984, 16.5 million acre-feet (20.4 km3) of excess runoff reached the ocean.[74]
Discharge of the Colorado River at selected stream gauges | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Location | Annual mean discharge |
Maximum peak flow |
Drainage area | Period of record |
Source | ||||
cfs | m3/s | cfs | m3/s | mi2 | km2 | ||||
Grand Lake, CO | 65.5 | 1.85 | 1,870 | 53 | 63.8 | 165 | 1953–2020 | [75] | |
Dotsero, CO | 2,079 | 58.9 | 22,200 | 630 | 4,390 | 11,400 | 1941–2020 | [76] | |
Cisco, UT | 7,048 | 199.6 | 76,800 | 2,170 | 24,100 | 62,000 | 1914–2020 | [77] | |
Lee's Ferry, AZ
|
14,600 | 410 | 127,000 | 3,600 | 111,800 | 290,000 | 1922–2020 | [78] | |
Davis Dam, AZ–NV | 13,740 | 389 | 46,200 | 1,310 | 173,300 | 449,000 | 1905–2020 | [79] | |
Parker Dam, AZ–CA | 11,630 | 329 | 42,400 | 1,200 | 182,700 | 473,000 | 1935–2020 | [80] | |
Laguna Dam, AZ–CA | 1,448 | 41.0 | 30,900 | 870 | 188,600 | 488,000 | 1972–2020 | [81] | |
NIB[n 5] (near Andrade, CA) |
3,869 | 109.6 | 40,600 | 1,150 | 246,700 | 639,000 | 1950–2020 | [71] |
Monthly discharge of the Colorado at Lee's Ferry, before and after construction of Glen Canyon Dam[78] | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan. | Feb. | Mar. | Apr. | May | Jun. | Jul. | Aug. | Sep. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec. | |
Pre-dam discharge (1921–1962) | cfs | 5,260 | 6,720 | 9,250 | 19,900 | 44,200 | 52,400 | 21,200 | 10,400 | 8,280 | 8,220 | 7,450 | 5,850 |
m3/s | 149 | 190 | 262 | 564 | 1,252 | 1,484 | 600 | 294 | 234 | 233 | 211 | 166 | |
Post-dam discharge (1963–2021) | cfs | 13,400 | 12,300 | 11,500 | 12,400 | 13,700 | 15,600 | 15,700 | 15,400 | 12,700 | 10,500 | 11,600 | 12,600 |
m3/s | 379 | 348 | 326 | 351 | 388 | 442 | 445 | 436 | 360 | 297 | 328 | 357 |
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) operates or has operated 46 stream gauges to measure the discharge of the Colorado River, ranging from the headwaters near Grand Lake to the Mexico–U.S. border.[82] The tables at right list data associated with eight of these gauges. River flows as gauged at Lees Ferry, Arizona, about halfway along the length of the Colorado and 16 miles (26 km) below Glen Canyon Dam, are used to determine water allocations in the Colorado River basin.[83] The average discharge recorded there was approximately 14,600 cubic feet per second (410 m3/s), or 10.58 million acre-feet (13.05 km3) per year, from 1922 to 2020. This figure has been heavily affected by upstream diversions and reservoir evaporation, especially after the completion of the Colorado River Storage Project in the 1970s. Prior to the completion of Glen Canyon Dam in 1964, the average discharge recorded between 1912 and 1962 was 17,850 cubic feet per second (505 m3/s), or 12.93 million acre-feet (15.95 km3) per year.[78]
Drainage basin
The Colorado River Basin consists of 246,000 square miles (640,000 km2), making it the seventh largest drainage basin in North America.[2] About 238,600 square miles (618,000 km2), or 97 percent of the basin, is in the United States.[42] The basin extends into western Colorado and New Mexico, southwestern Wyoming, eastern and southern Utah, southeastern Nevada and California, and most of Arizona. The areas drained within Baja California and Sonora in Mexico are very small and do not contribute significant runoff.[84] Aside from the Colorado River Delta, the basin extends into Sonora at a few locations further east, including the headwaters of the Santa Cruz River and San Pedro River (both tributaries of the Gila River).[85] For hydrological management purposes, the Colorado River Basin is divided into the Upper Basin (the drainage area above Lees Ferry), and the Lower Basin. The Upper Basin covers only 45 percent of the land area of the Colorado River Basin, but contributes 92 percent of the runoff.[86]
The entire eastern boundary of the Colorado River Basin runs along the
About 72 percent of the Colorado River Basin is classified as arid, with the
Climate in the Colorado River Basin ranges from subtropical
As of 2010, approximately 13 million people lived within the Colorado River basin,
Geology
As recently as the Cretaceous period about 100 million years ago, much of western North America was still part of the Pacific Ocean. Tectonic forces from the collision of the Farallon Plate with the North American Plate pushed up the Rocky Mountains between 50 and 75 million years ago in a mountain-building episode known as the Laramide orogeny.[100] The Colorado River first formed as a west-flowing stream draining the southwestern portion of the range, and the uplift also diverted the Green River, once a tributary of the Mississippi River, west towards the Colorado. About 30 to 20 million years ago, volcanic activity related to the orogeny led to the Mid-Tertiary ignimbrite flare-up, which created smaller formations such as the Chiricahua Mountains in Arizona and deposited massive amounts of volcanic ash and debris over the watershed.[101] The Colorado Plateau first began to rise during the Eocene, between about 55 and 34 million years ago, but did not attain its present height until about 5 million years ago, about when the Colorado River established its present course into the Gulf of California.[102]
The time scale and sequence over which the river's present course and the Grand Canyon were formed is uncertain. Before the Gulf of California was formed around 12 to 5 million years ago by faulting processes along the boundary of the North American and
Sediments carried from the plateau by the Colorado River created a vast delta made of more than 10,000 cubic miles (42,000 km3) of material that walled off the northernmost part of the gulf in approximately 1 million years. Cut off from the ocean, the portion of the gulf north of the delta eventually evaporated and formed the Salton Sink, which reached about 260 feet (79 m) below sea level.[106][107] Since then the river has changed course into the Salton Sink at least three times, transforming it into Lake Cahuilla, which at maximum size flooded up the valley to present-day Indio, California. The lake took about 50 years to evaporate after the Colorado resumed flowing to the Gulf. The present-day Salton Sea can be considered the most recent incarnation of Lake Cahuilla, though on a much smaller scale.[108]
Between 1.8 million and 10,000 years ago, massive flows of
History
Indigenous peoples
The first humans of the Colorado River basin were likely
Beginning in the early centuries A.D., Colorado River basin peoples began to form large agriculture-based societies, some of which lasted hundreds of years and grew into well-organized civilizations encompassing tens of thousands of inhabitants. The
The Puebloans dominated the basin of the San Juan River, and the center of their civilization was in Chaco Canyon.[118] In Chaco Canyon and the surrounding lands, they built more than 150 multi-story pueblos or "great houses", the largest of which, Pueblo Bonito, is composed of more than 600 rooms.[119][120] The Hohokam culture was present along the middle Gila River beginning around 1 A.D. Between 600 and 700 A.D. they began to employ irrigation on a large scale, and did so more prolifically than any other native group in the Colorado River basin.[121] An extensive system of irrigation canals was constructed on the Gila and Salt rivers, with various estimates of a total length ranging from 180 to 300 miles (290 to 480 km) and capable of irrigating 25,000 to 250,000 acres (10,000 to 101,000 ha). Both civilizations supported large populations at their height; the Chaco Canyon Puebloans numbered between 6,000 and 15,000[122] and estimates for the Hohokam range between 30,000 and 200,000.[123]
Megadrought in 14th century
These sedentary peoples heavily exploited their surroundings, practicing logging and harvesting of other resources on a large scale. The construction of irrigation canals may have led to a significant change in the morphology of many waterways in the Colorado River basin. Prior to human contact, rivers such as the Gila, Salt and
Native American names for the Colorado River |
Hopi: Pisisvayu[127] |
Maricopa: 'Xakxwet[128] |
Mohave: 'Aha Kwahwat[129]
|
Navajo: Tó Ntsʼósíkooh |
Yavapai: ʼHakhwata[131] |
The
Europeans arrive
Beginning in the 17th century, contact with Europeans brought significant changes to the lifestyles of Native Americans in the Colorado River basin. Missionaries sought to convert indigenous peoples to Christianity – an effort sometimes successful, such as in
The gradual influx of European and American explorers, fortune seekers and settlers into the region eventually led to conflicts that forced many Native Americans off their traditional lands. After the acquisition of the Colorado River basin from Mexico in the Mexican–American War in 1846, U.S. military forces commanded by Kit Carson forced more than 8,000 Navajo men, women and children from their homes after a series of unsuccessful attempts to confine their territory, many of which were met with violent resistance. In what is now known as the Long Walk of the Navajo, the captives were marched from Arizona to Fort Sumner in New Mexico, and many died along the route. Four years later, the Navajo signed a treaty that moved them onto a reservation in the Four Corners region that is now known as the Navajo Nation. It is the largest Native American reservation in the United States, encompassing 27,000 square miles (70,000 km2) with a population of over 180,000 as of 2000.[139][140][141]
Mohave expelled
The Mohave were expelled from their territory after a series of minor skirmishes and raids on
Water rights of Native Americans in the Colorado River basin were largely ignored during the extensive water resources development carried out on the river and its tributaries in the 19th and 20th centuries. The construction of dams has often had negative impacts on tribal peoples, such as the Chemehuevi when their riverside lands were flooded after the completion of Parker Dam in 1938. Ten Native American tribes in the basin now hold or continue to claim water rights to the Colorado River.[146] The U.S. government has taken some actions to help quantify and develop the water resources of Native American reservations. The first federally funded irrigation project in the U.S. was the construction of an irrigation canal on the Colorado River Indian Reservation in 1867.[147] Other water projects include the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project, authorized in 1962 for the irrigation of lands in part of the Navajo Nation in north-central New Mexico.[148] The Navajo continue to seek expansion of their water rights because of difficulties with the water supply on their reservation; about 40 percent of its inhabitants must haul water by truck many miles to their homes. In the 21st century, they have filed legal claims against the governments of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah for increased water rights. Some of these claims have been successful for the Navajo, such as a 2004 settlement in which they received a 326,000-acre-foot (402,000 ML) allotment from New Mexico.[149]
Early explorers
During the 16th century, the Spanish began to explore and colonize western North America. An early motive was the search for the
In 1540,
During the 18th and early 19th centuries, many Americans and Spanish believed in the existence of the
Between 1850 and 1854 the U. S. Army explored the lower reach of the Colorado River from the Gulf of California, looking for the river to provide a less expensive route to supply the remote post of Fort Yuma. First in November 1850 to January 1851, by its transport schooner, Invincible under Captain Alfred H. Wilcox and then by its longboat commanded by Lieutenant George Derby. Later Lieutenant Derby, in his expedition report, recommended that a shallow draft sternwheel steamboat would be the way to send supplies up river to the fort.[158]
The next contractors George Alonzo Johnson with his partner Benjamin M. Hartshorne, brought two barges and 250 tons of supplies arriving at the river's mouth in February 1852, on the United States transport schooner Sierra Nevada under Captain Wilcox. Poling the barges up the Colorado, the first barge sank with its cargo a total loss. The second was finally, after a long struggle poled up to Fort Yuma, but what little it carried was soon consumed by the garrison. Subsequently, wagons again were sent from the fort to haul the balance of the supplies overland from the estuary through the marshes and woodlands of the Delta.[159]: 5–9
At last Derby's recommendation was heeded and in November 1852, the
George Alonzo Johnson with his partner Hartshorne and a new partner Captain Alfred H. Wilcox (formerly of the Invincible and Sierra Nevada), formed George A. Johnson & Company and obtained the next contract to supply the fort. Johnson and his partners, all having learned lessons from their failed attempts ascending the Colorado and with the example of the Uncle Sam, brought the parts of a more powerful side-wheel steamboat, the General Jesup, with them to the mouth of the Colorado from San Francisco. There it was reassembled at a landing in the upper tidewater of the river and reached Fort Yuma, January 18, 1854. This new boat, capable of carrying 50 tons of cargo, was very successful making round trips from the estuary to the fort in only four or five days. Costs were cut from $200 to $75 per ton.[159]: 11–12 [161]: 34
The second Corps of Topographical Engineers expedition passed along and crossed the Colorado was the 1853–1854
George A. Johnson was instrumental in getting the support for Congressional funding a military expedition up the river. With those funds Johnson expected to provide the transportation for the expedition but was angry and disappointed when the commander of the expedition Lt. Joseph Christmas Ives rejected his offer of one of his steamboats. Before Ives could finish reassembling his steamer in the delta, George A. Johnson set off from Fort Yuma on December 31, 1857, conducting his own exploration of the river above the fort in his steamboat General Jesup. He ascended the river in twenty one days as far as the first rapids in Pyramid Canyon, over 300 miles (480 km) above Fort Yuma and 8 miles (13 km) above the modern site of Davis Dam. Running low on food he turned back.[159]: 16–17, 19 [165] As he returned he encountered Lieutenant Ives, Whipple's assistant, who was leading an expedition to explore the feasibility of using the Colorado River as a navigation route in the Southwest. Ives and his men used a specially built steamboat, the shallow-draft U.S.S. Explorer, and traveled up the river as far as Black Canyon. He then took a small boat up beyond the canyon to Fortification Rock and Las Vegas Wash.[166]: Part 1, 85–87 After experiencing numerous groundings and accidents and having been inhibited by low water in the river, Ives declared: "Ours has been the first, and will doubtless be the last, party of whites to visit this profitless locality. It seems intended by nature that the Colorado River, along the greater portion of its lonely and majestic way, shall be forever unvisited and undisturbed."[167][168]
Until 1866, El Dorado Canyon was the actual head of navigation on the Colorado River. In that year Captain Robert T. Rogers, commanding the steamer Esmeralda with a barge and ninety tons of freight, reached Callville, Nevada, on October 8, 1866.[159]: 49 Callville remained the head of navigation on the river until July 7, 1879, when Captain J. A. Mellon in the Gila left El Dorado Canyon landing, steamed up through the rapids in Black Canyon, making record time to Callville and tied up overnight. Next morning he to steamed up through the rapids in Boulder Canyon to reach the mouth of the Virgin River at Rioville July 8, 1879. From 1879 to 1887, Rioville, Nevada was the high water Head of Navigation for the steamboats and the mining company sloop Sou'Wester that carried the salt needed for the reduction of silver ore from there to the mills at El Dorado Canyon.[159]: 78
Powell's expeditions, 1869–1871
Up until the mid-19th century, long stretches of the Colorado and Green rivers between Wyoming and Nevada remained largely unexplored due to their remote location and dangers of navigation. Because of the dramatic drop in elevation of the two rivers, there were rumors of huge waterfalls and violent rapids, and Native American tales strengthened their credibility.[169] In 1869, one-armed Civil War veteran John Wesley Powell led an expedition from Green River Station in Wyoming, aiming to run the two rivers all the way down to St. Thomas, Nevada, near present-day Hoover Dam.[170] Powell and nine men – none of whom had prior whitewater experience – set out in May. After braving the rapids of the Gates of Lodore, Cataract Canyon and other gorges along the Colorado, the party arrived at the mouth of the Little Colorado River, where Powell noted down arguably the most famous words ever written about the Grand Canyon of the Colorado:[171]
We are now ready to start on our way down the Great Unknown. Our boats, tied to a common stake, are chafing each other, as they are tossed by the fretful river. They ride high and buoyant, for their loads are lighter than we could desire. We have but a month's rations remaining. The flour has been re-sifted through the mosquito net sieve; the spoiled bacon has been dried, and the worst of it boiled; the few pounds of dried apples have been spread in the sun, and re-shrunken to their normal bulk; the sugar has all melted, and gone on its way down the river; but we have a large sack of coffee. The lighting of the boats has this advantage: they will ride the waves better, and we shall have little to carry when we make a portage.
We are three-quarters of a mile in the depths of the earth, and the great river shrinks into insignificance, as it dashes its angry waves against the walls and cliffs, that rise to the world above; they are but puny ripples, and we but pigmies, running up and down the sands, or lost among the boulders.
We have an unknown distance yet to run; an unknown river yet to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls rise over the river, we know not; Ah, well! we may conjecture many things. The men talk as cheerfully as ever; jests are bandied about freely this morning; but to me the cheer is somber and the jests are ghastly.
— John Wesley Powell's journal, August 1869[171]
Powell led a second expedition in 1871, this time with financial backing from the U.S. government.[172] The explorers named many features along the Colorado and Green rivers, including Glen Canyon, the Dirty Devil River, Flaming Gorge, and the Gates of Lodore. Modern-day Lake Powell, which floods Glen Canyon, is also named for their leader.[173]
American settlement
Starting in the latter half of the 19th century, the lower Colorado below Black Canyon became an important
During the
In 1860, anticipating the American Civil War, the Mormons established a number of settlements to grow cotton along the Virgin River in Washington County, Utah. From 1863 to 1865, Mormon colonists founded St. Thomas and other colonies on the Muddy and Virgin rivers in northwestern Arizona Territory, (now Clark County, Nevada). Stone's Ferry was established by these colonists on the Colorado at the mouth of the Virgin River to carry their produce on a wagon road to the mining districts of Mohave County, Arizona to the south. Also, in 1866, a steamboat landing was established at Callville, intended as an outlet to the Pacific Ocean via the Colorado River, for Mormon settlements in the Great Basin. These settlements reached a peak population of about 600 before being abandoned in 1871, and for nearly a decade these valleys became a haven for outlaws and cattle rustlers.[180] One Mormon settler Daniel Bonelli, remained, operating the ferry and began mining salt in nearby mines, bring it in barges, down river to El Dorado Canyon where it was used to process silver ore. From 1879 to 1887, Colorado Steam Navigation Company steamboats carried the salt, operating up river in the high spring flood waters, through Boulder Canyon, to the landing at Rioville at the mouth of the Virgin River. From 1879 to 1882 the Southwestern Mining Company, largest in El Dorado Canyon, brought in a 56-foot sloop the Sou'Wester that sailed up and down river carrying the salt in the low water time of year until it was wrecked in the Quick and Dirty Rapids of Black Canyon.[159]: 78
Mormons founded settlements along the Duchesne River Valley in the 1870s, and populated the Little Colorado River valley later in the century, settling in towns such as St. Johns, Arizona.[136] They also established settlements along the Gila River in central Arizona beginning in 1871. These early settlers were impressed by the extensive ruins of the Hohokam civilization that previously occupied the Gila River valley, and are said to have "envisioned their new agricultural civilization rising as the mythical phoenix bird from the ashes of Hohokam society".[121] The Mormons were the first whites to develop the water resources of the basin on a large scale, and built complex networks of dams and canals to irrigate wheat, oats and barley in addition to establishing extensive sheep and cattle ranches.[179]
One of the main reasons the Mormons were able to colonize Arizona was the existence of
Gold strikes from the mid-19th to early 20th centuries played a major role in attracting settlers to the upper Colorado River basin. In 1859, a group of adventurers from Georgia discovered gold along the Blue River in Colorado and established the mining boomtown of Breckenridge.[183] During 1875, even bigger strikes were made along the Uncompahgre and San Miguel rivers, also in Colorado, and these led to the creation of Ouray and Telluride, respectively.[184][185] Because most gold deposits along the upper Colorado River and its tributaries occur in lode deposits, extensive mining systems and heavy machinery were required to extract them. Mining remains a substantial contributor to the economy of the upper basin and has led to acid mine drainage problems in some regional streams and rivers.[186][187]
The Colorado River region in Mexico became favored place for Americans to invest in agriculture in the late nineteenth century when Mexico President
Controversy over the name of the upper Colorado River
The Colorado River did not officially flow through the
In 1921, U.S. Representative
Engineering and development
About 40 million people depend on the Colorado River's water for agricultural, industrial and domestic needs.
Colorado River water allocations, in millions of acre-feet[204][205][206] | ||
---|---|---|
User | Amount | Share |
United States | 15.0 | 90.9% |
California | 4.4 | 26.7% |
Colorado | 3.88 | 23.5% |
Arizona | 2.8 | 17.0% |
Utah | 1.72 | 10.4% |
Wyoming | 1.05 | 6.4% |
New Mexico | 0.84 | 5.1% |
Nevada | 0.3 | 1.8% |
Mexico | 1.5 | 9.1% |
Total | 16.5 | 100% |
In 1922, six U.S. states signed the Colorado River Compact, which divided half of the river's flow to both the Upper Basin (the drainage area above Lee's Ferry, comprising parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming and a small portion of Arizona) and the Lower Basin (Arizona, California, Nevada, and parts of New Mexico and Utah). The Upper and Lower Basin were each allocated 7.5 million acre-feet (9.3 km3) of water per year, a figure believed to represent half of the river's annual flow at Lee's Ferry.[204] The allotments operated under the premise that approximately 17.5 million acre-feet of water flowed through the river annually.[207]
Arizona initially refused to ratify the compact because it feared that California would take too much of the lower basin allotment. In 1944 a compromise was reached in which Arizona was allocated 2.8 million acre-feet (3.5 km3), but with the caveat that California's 4.4-million-acre-foot (5.4 km3) allocation was prioritized during drought years.[208] These and nine other decisions, compacts, federal acts and agreements made between 1922 and 1973 constitute what is now known as the Law of the River.[208][209]
In 1944, a treaty between the U.S. and Mexico allocated 1.5 million acre-feet (1.9 km3) of Colorado River water to Mexico each year.[205] Morelos Dam was constructed in 1950 to enable Mexico to utilize its share of the river. Water allocated to Mexico from the Colorado River is regulated by the International Boundary and Water Commission, which also apportions waters from the Rio Grande between the two countries.[210]
Transmountain diversions
Large-scale development of Colorado River water supplies started in the late 19th century, at the river's headwaters in La Poudre Pass. The
While first planned at the same time as the Grand Ditch, construction on the
Combined, the transmountain diversions draw about 580,000 acre-feet (720,000,000 m3) of water per year out of the Colorado River basin.[213] Historically, most of the water has been used for irrigation, although water usage is increasing for urban water supply and for recreational purposes such as snowmaking and increasing Eastern Slope streamflows for boating and fishing. Denver Water receives about 50 percent of its supply from the Colorado River basin. However, diversions have caused environmental harm to the upper Colorado River system by reducing streamflows in many tributaries.[213] A number of reservoirs have been built to offset the impact of transmountain diversions by storing water for dry season release on the Western Slope, including Williams Fork Reservoir in 1959[219] and Wolford Mountain Reservoir in 1996.[220]
The Imperial Valley and the Salton Sea
In 1900, the California Development Company (CDC) envisioned irrigating the Imperial Valley, a then dry basin on the California–Mexico border, using water from the Colorado River. Due to the valley's location below sea level, water could be diverted and allowed to flow there entirely by gravity. Engineer George Chaffey was hired to design the Alamo Canal, which split from the Colorado near Pilot Knob, California and ran south into Mexico, where it joined the Alamo River, a dry arroyo which had historically carried overflowing floodwaters from the Colorado into the Salton Sink at the bottom of Imperial Valley. The scheme worked initially; by 1903, about four thousand people lived in the valley and more than 100,000 acres (40,000 ha) of farmland had been developed.[221][222]
The Alamo Canal experienced continual problems due to the Colorado's high sediment content and its varying water levels. During low flows, the river often dropped below the level of the canal intake, while high flows silted up the intake, forcing the repeated excavation of new cuts. In early 1905, flooding destroyed the intake gates and water began to flow uncontrolled down the canal towards the Salton Sink. By August, the breach had grown large enough to swallow the entire flow of the river, which began to flood the bottom of the valley. The
Boulder Canyon Project
A large dam on the Colorado River had been envisioned since the 1920s. In 1928, Congress authorized the Reclamation Service (today's
The Boulder Canyon Project Act also authorized the All-American Canal,[228] which was built as a permanent replacement for the Alamo Canal and follows a route entirely within the U.S. on its way to the Imperial Valley. The canal's intake is located at Imperial Dam, 20 miles (32 km) above Yuma, Arizona, which diverts the majority of the Colorado's flow with only a small portion continuing to Mexico. With a capacity of over 26,000 cubic feet per second (740 m3/s), the All-American Canal is the largest irrigation canal in the world.[229] Because the hot, sunny climate lends to a year-round growing season, the Imperial Valley has become one of the most productive farming regions in North America, providing much of the winter produce supply in the U.S.[8] The Imperial Irrigation District supplies water to 520,000 acres (210,000 ha) south of the Salton Sea.[230] The Coachella Canal, which branches northward from the All-American Canal, irrigates another 78,000 acres (32,000 ha) in the Coachella Valley.[231]
The Las Vegas Valley of Nevada experienced rapid growth after Hoover Dam, and by 1937 Las Vegas had tapped a pipeline into Lake Mead. Nevada officials, believing that groundwater resources in the southern part of the state were sufficient for future growth, were more concerned with securing a large amount of the dam's power supply than water from the Colorado; thus they settled for the smallest water allocation of all the states in the Colorado River Compact.[236] In 2018, due to declining water levels in Lake Mead, a second pipeline was completed with a lower intake elevation.
Colorado River Storage Project
In the first half of the 20th century, the Upper Basin states, with the exception of Colorado, had developed very little of their water allocations from the Colorado River Compact. By the 1950s, however, water demand was rapidly increasing in Utah's
In 1956 Congress authorized the USBR to construct the Colorado River Storage Project (CRSP), which planned several large reservoirs on the upper Colorado, Green, Gunnison and San Juan Rivers.
The controversy associated with Glen Canyon Dam did not build momentum until construction was well underway. Due to Glen Canyon's remote location, most of the American public did not even know of its existence; the few who did contended that it had much greater scenic value than Echo Park. The
In addition to Glen Canyon Dam, the CRSP includes the Flaming Gorge Dam on the Green River, the Blue Mesa, Morrow Point and Crystal Dams on the Gunnison River, and the Navajo Dam on the San Juan River. A total of 22 "participating projects" (of which 16 have been constructed) were later authorized in order to develop local water supplies at various locations across the Upper Basin states.[238] These include the Central Utah Project, which delivers 102,000 acre-feet (126,000,000 m3) per year from the Green River basin to the Wasatch Front, and the San Juan–Chama Project, which diverts 110,000 acre-feet (140,000,000 m3) per year from the San Juan River to the Rio Grande Valley. Both are multi-purpose projects serving a variety of agricultural, municipal and industrial uses.[242][243]
Pacific Southwest Water Plan
By the middle of the 20th century, planners were concerned that continued growth in water demand would outstrip the available water supply from the Colorado River. After exploring a multitude of potential projects, the USBR published a study in January 1964 known as the Pacific Southwest Water Plan, which proposed diverting water from the northwestern United States into the Colorado River basin.[244] Arizona's water allocation was a significant focus of the plan, due to the growing concern that its water supply could be curtailed due to California's seniority of water rights. In addition, the plan would guarantee full water supplies to Nevada, California and Mexico, allowing the Upper Basin states to utilize their full allocations without risking reductions in the Lower Basin.[244] The project would cost an estimated $3.1 billion.[245]
The first stage of this plan would divert water from Northern California's Trinity, Klamath and Eel Rivers to Southern California, allowing more Colorado River water to be used, by exchange, in Arizona. A canal system, which ultimately would become the Central Arizona Project (CAP), would be constructed to deliver Arizona's Colorado River allocation to Phoenix and Tucson, both located far away from the Colorado River in the middle of the state. At this point, central Arizona was still entirely dependent on local water supplies, such as the 1911 Theodore Roosevelt Dam,[246] and was quickly running out of surplus water.[244]
In order to supply the massive amount of power required to pump Colorado River water to central Arizona, two hydroelectric dams were proposed in the Grand Canyon (Bridge Canyon Dam and Marble Canyon Dam), which while not directly located in Grand Canyon National Park, would greatly impact flows of the Colorado River through the park.[244] With the controversy over Glen Canyon Dam still ongoing, the public pressure against these dams was immense.[245] As a result, the two Grand Canyon dams were omitted from the final CAP authorization in 1968.[247] In addition, the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park were redrawn to prevent future dam projects in the area. The pumping power was replaced by the building of the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station near Page, Arizona, in 1976.[248][249][250] In 2019, the Navajo Generating Station ceased operation.[251]
The CAP was constructed in stages from 1973 to 1993, ultimately extending 336 miles (541 km) from the Colorado River at Parker Dam to Tucson, Arizona. It delivers 1.4 million acre-feet (1.7 km3) of water per year, irrigates 830,000 acres (3,400 km2) of farmland and provides municipal water to about 5 million people.[248] Due to environmental concerns, most of the facilities proposed in the Pacific Southwest Water Plan were never built (though a smaller version of the Trinity River project was constructed as part of the unrelated Central Valley Project),[252] leaving Arizona and Nevada vulnerable to future water reductions under the Compact.[253]
Post-2000 water supply
[The Colorado is] a 'deficit' river, as if the river were somehow at fault for its overuse.
When the Colorado River Compact was drafted in the 1920s, it was based on barely 30 years of streamflow records that suggested an average annual flow of 17.5 million acre-feet (21.6 km3) past Lee's Ferry.
The most severe drought on record, the southwestern North American megadrought, began in the early 21st century, in which the river basin has produced above-average runoff in only five years between 2000 and 2021.[261] The region is experiencing a warming trend, which is accompanied by earlier snowmelt, lower precipitation and greater evapotranspiration. A 2004 study showed that a 1–6 percent decrease of precipitation would lead to runoff declining by as much as 18 percent by 2050.[262]
Since 2000, reservoir levels have fluctuated greatly from year to year, but have experienced a steady long-term decline.[263] The particularly dry spell between 2000 and 2004 brought Lake Powell to just a third of capacity in 2005, the lowest level on record since initial filling in 1969.[264] In late 2010, Lake Mead was approaching the "drought trigger" elevation of 1,075 feet (328 m), at which water supplies to Arizona and Nevada would be reduced in accordance with the Colorado River Compact.[265] Due to Arizona and Nevada's water rights being junior to California's, their allocations can legally be cut to zero before any reductions are made on the California side.[258][266]
A wet winter in 2011 temporarily raised lake levels,[267][268] but dry conditions returned in the next two years.[269] In 2014, the Bureau of Reclamation cut releases from Lake Powell by 10 percent —the first such reduction since the 1960s, when Lake Powell was being filled for the first time.[270] This resulted in Lake Mead dropping to its lowest recorded level since 1937, when it was first being filled.[271]
Water year 2018 had a much lower-than-average snowpack.[272][273] In July 2021, after two more extremely dry winters, Lake Powell fell below the previous low set in 2005. In response, the Bureau of Reclamation began releasing water from upstream reservoirs in order to keep Powell above the minimum level for hydropower generation.[274][275] Lake Mead fell below the 1,075-foot (328 m) level expected to trigger federally mandated cuts to Arizona and Nevada's water supplies for the first time in history, and is expected to continue declining into 2022.[276]
On August 16, 2021, the Bureau of Reclamation released the Colorado River Basin August 2021 24-Month Study, and for the first time declared a shortage and that because of "ongoing historic drought and low runoff conditions in the Colorado River Basin, downstream releases from Glen Canyon Dam and Hoover Dam will be reduced in 2022 due to declining reservoir levels."[277] The Lower Basin reductions will reduce the annual apportionments – Arizona's by 18 percent, Nevada's by 7 percent, and Mexico's by 5 percent.[278]
On June 14, 2022, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton told the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural resources that additional cuts of 2-4 million acre-feet were required to stabilize reservoir levels in 2023. Touton warned that if states were unable to negotiate the requisite cuts the Interior department may use its legal authority to cut releases.[279] When the states were unable to come to an agreement about how to share the proposed cuts, Reclamation began the legal steps to unilaterally reduce releases from Hoover and Glen Canyon Dams in 2023.[280] As of December 2022 the lower basin states of Nevada, Arizona, and California had not agreed on how to reduce water use by the approximately 30% required to keep levels in lakes Mead and Powell from crashing.[281] The Bureau of Reclamation has projected that water levels at Lake Powell could fall low enough that by July 2023 Glen Canyon Dam would no longer be able to generate any hydropower.[282] Arizona proposed a plan that severely cut allocations to California, and California responded with a plan that severely cut allocations to Arizona, failing to reach consensus. In April 2023, the federal government proposed cutting allocations to Nevada, Arizona, and California evenly which would cut deliveries by as much as one-quarter to each state, rather than according to senior water rights.[283]
In May 2023, the states finally reached a temporary agreement to prevent deadpool, reducing allocations by 3 million acre-feet over three years (until the end of 2026). 700,000 acre-feet were to be negotiated later among California, Arizona, and Nevada.[284] The cuts were less than the federal government had demanded, and so further cuts will be needed after 2026.[284] Fewer cuts were needed in the short term because the Colorado River Basin experienced an unusually rainy and snowy weather in early 2023.[284][285]
The agreement also became easier to negotiate because many cuts are being offset by one-time federal funding.[286] Billions of dollars in funding for programs in the Colorado River Basin to recycle water, increase efficiency, and competitive grants to pay water rights holders not to use water from the river are being provided by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act, and other programs funded through the United States Environmental Protection Agency and United States Department of the Interior. These are projected to reduce demand by hundreds of thousands of acre-feet per year.[287]
Ecology
Wildlife and plants
The Colorado River and its tributaries often nourish extensive corridors of riparian growth as they traverse the arid desert regions of the watershed. Although riparian zones represent a relatively small proportion of the basin and have been affected by engineering projects and river diversion in many places, they have the greatest biodiversity of any habitat in the basin.[288] The most prominent riparian zones along the river occur along the lower Colorado below Davis Dam,[289] especially in the Colorado River Delta, where riparian areas support 358 species of birds despite the reduction in freshwater flow and invasive plants such as tamarisk (salt cedar).[290] Reduction of the delta's size has also threatened animals such as jaguars and the vaquita porpoise, which is endemic to the gulf.[291] Human development of the Colorado River has also helped to create new riparian zones by smoothing the river's seasonal flow, notably through the Grand Canyon.[292]
More than 1,600 species of plants grow in the Colorado River watershed, ranging from the
Rivers and streams in the Colorado basin were once home to 49 species of native fish, of which 42 were
Impacts of development
Historically, the Colorado transported from 85 to 100 million short tons (77,000,000 to 91,000,000 t) of sediment or silt to the Gulf of California each year – second only to the Mississippi among North American rivers.[298] This sediment nourished wetlands and riparian areas along the river's lower course, particularly in its 3,000-square-mile (7,800 km2) delta, once the largest desert estuary on the continent.[299] Currently, the majority of sediments carried by the Colorado River are deposited at the upper end of Lake Powell, and most of the remainder ends up in Lake Mead. Various estimates place the time it would take for Powell to completely fill with silt at 300 to 700 years. Dams trapping sediment not only pose damage to river habitat but also threaten future operations of the Colorado River reservoir system.[300]
Reduction in flow caused by dams, diversions, water for thermoelectric power stations,
Reduced flows have led to increases in the concentration of certain substances in the lower river that have impacted water quality. Salinity is one of the major issues and also leads to the corrosion of pipelines in agricultural and urban areas.
Agricultural runoff containing pesticide residues has also been concentrated in the lower river in greater amounts. This has led to fish kills; six of these events were recorded between 1964 and 1968 alone.
Large dams such as Hoover and Glen Canyon typically release water from lower levels of their reservoirs, resulting in stable and relatively cold year-round temperatures in long reaches of the river. The Colorado's average temperature once ranged from 85 °F (29 °C) at the height of summer to near freezing in winter, but modern flows through the Grand Canyon, for example, rarely deviate significantly from 46 °F (8 °C).[312] Changes in temperature regime have caused declines of native fish populations, and stable flows have enabled increased vegetation growth, obstructing riverside habitat.[313] These flow patterns have also made the Colorado more dangerous to recreational boaters; people are more likely to die of hypothermia in the colder water, and the general lack of flooding allows rockslides to build up, making the river more difficult to navigate.[314]
Minute 319
In the 21st century, there has been renewed interest in restoring a limited water flow to the delta. In November 2012, the U.S. and Mexico reached an agreement, known as Minute 319, permitting Mexico storage of its water allotment in U.S. reservoirs during wet years, thus increasing the efficiency with which the water can be used. In addition to renovating irrigation canals in the Mexicali Valley to reduce leakage, this will make about 45,000 acre-feet (56,000,000 m3) per year available for release to the delta on average. The water will be used to provide both an annual base flow and a spring "pulse flow" to mimic the river's original snowmelt-driven regime.[315][316] The first pulse flow, an eight-week release of 105,000 acre-feet (130,000,000 m3), was initiated on March 21, 2014, with the aim of revitalising 2,350 acres (950 hectares) of wetland.[317] This pulse reached the sea on May 16, 2014, marking the first time in 16 years that any water from the Colorado flowed into the ocean, and was hailed as "an experiment of historic political and ecological significance" and a landmark in U.S.–Mexican cooperation in conservation.[11][318][319] The pulse will be followed by the steady release of 52,000 acre-feet (64,000,000 m3) over the following three years, just a small fraction of its average flow before damming.[317][needs update]
Recreation
Famed for its dramatic rapids and canyons, the Colorado is one of the most desirable
Several other sections of the river and its tributaries are popular whitewater runs, and many of these are also served by commercial outfitters. The Colorado's Cataract Canyon and many reaches in the Colorado headwaters are even more heavily used than the Grand Canyon, and about 60,000 boaters run a single 4.5-mile (7.2 km) section above Radium, Colorado, each year.[324] The upper Colorado also includes many of the river's most challenging rapids, including those in Gore Canyon, which is considered so dangerous that "boating is not recommended".[324] Another section of the river above Moab, known as the Colorado "Daily" or "Fisher Towers Section", is the most visited whitewater run in Utah, with more than 77,000 visitors in 2011 alone.[325] The rapids of the Green River's Gray and Desolation Canyons[326] and the less difficult "Goosenecks" section of the lower San Juan River are also frequently traversed by boaters.[327]
Eleven U.S. national parks—Arches,
See also
- Colorado River Delta
- Colorado Desert
- List of Colorado River rapids and features
- List of dams in the Colorado River system
- List of largest reservoirs in the United States
- List of longest rivers of Mexico
- List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem)
- London Bridge (Lake Havasu City)
- Moab uranium mill tailings pile
- Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program
Notes
- ^ Discharge data is for Green River, Utah, 117.6 miles (189.3 km) upstream from the mouth. The stream gauge here measures flow from an area of 44,850 square miles (116,200 km2), representing about 93.2 percent of the basin.[46]
- ^ Before large irrigation and municipal diversions, the Gila River discharged about 1.3 million acre-feet (1.6 km3) per year,[43] which equals a flow of nearly 2,000 cubic feet per second (57 m3/s).
- ^ Discharge data is for Bluff, Utah, located about 113.5 miles (182.7 km) above the confluence with the Colorado. The gauge measures flow from an area of 23,000 square miles (60,000 km2), about 93.5 percent of the basin.[49]
- ^ Discharge data is for Littlefield, Arizona, about 66 miles (106 km) from the confluence with the Colorado, and also upstream of the confluence with its major tributary, the Muddy River. The gauge measures flow from an area of 5,090 square miles (13,200 km2), about 39.1 percent of the total basin.[56]
- ^ NIB = "Northerly International Boundary", or the point at which the Colorado begins to form the Mexico–U.S. border, south of Yuma. Also note that the SIB ("Southerly International Boundary") is the point at which the Colorado ceases to form the border and passes entirely into Mexico.
- ^ American population (9.7 million) calculated from statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau[96] and the State of Colorado.[97] The population in Mexico is about 3 million.[98]
- ^ The average discharge of the Colorado (Grand) River at Cisco, Utah, about 97 miles (156 km) upstream from the Green River confluence, is 7,181 cubic feet per second (203.3 m3/s); between here and the confluence, only a few small, intermittent tributaries join the river.[77]The Green River has an average discharge of 6,048 cubic feet per second (171.3 m3/s) as measured at Green River, Utah, about 117.6 miles (189.3 km) above the confluence;[46] below here the only major tributary is the San Rafael River, which contributes an average of 131 cubic feet per second (3.7 m3/s), resulting in a total of 6,169 cubic feet per second (174.7 m3/s), still significantly lower than the discharge of the Colorado at their confluence.[195]
- ^ The discrepancy between the natural flow at Lee's Ferry (13.5 million acre-feet or 16.65 km3) and the gauged flow between 1922 and 2020 (10.58 million acre-feet or 13.05 km3)[83] is mostly due to water diversions above Lee's Ferry and evaporation from reservoirs, especially Lake Powell.[257]
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{{cite book}}
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Further reading
- ISBN 978-0-87480-963-3.
- DeBuys, William (2011). A Great Aridness: Climate Change and the Future of the American Southwest. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-977892-8.
- Fleck, Richard F., editor. (2000). A Colorado River Reader. ISBN 978-0-87480-647-2.
- Fowler, Don D., editor. (2012). Cleaving an Unknown World: The Powell Expeditions and the Scientific Exploration of the Colorado Plateau. ISBN 978-1-60781-146-6.
- Gregory, Herbert E., William Culp Darrah, and Charles Kelly, editors. (2009). The Exploration of the Colorado River and the High Plateaus of Utah by the Second Powell Expedition of 1871–1872. ISBN 978-0-87480-964-0.
- Martin, Russell (1990). A Story That Stands Like A Dam: Glen Canyon and the Struggle for the Soul of the West (1 ed.). Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 978-0-8050-0822-7.
- McPherson, Robert (1994), "Colorado River", Utah History Encyclopedia, University of Utah Press, ISBN 9780874804256, archived from the originalon December 8, 2023, retrieved April 12, 2024
- Summitt, April R. (2013). Contested Waters: An Environmental History of the Colorado River. Boulder: University Press of Colorado. ISBN 978-1-60732-201-6.
External links
- Agriculture in the Colorado River Basin: Colorado River Water Users Association
- Colorado River Water Allocations by State: GOOD Infographics
- Drought in the Upper Colorado River Basin: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
- Irrigation Water Withdrawals in the Colorado River Basin: Pacific Institute
- Living Rivers: Colorado Riverkeeper
- Water Level Data for Major Colorado River Reservoirs: water-data.com
- Where the Colorado Runs Dry: The New York Times
- 1854 report from the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers: Report of an expedition down the Zuni and Colorado Rivers
- Killing the Colorado – ProPublica
- Lawrence Pratt Collection Concerning Arizona v. California and the Colorado River. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.